The thundering march of the city garrison and city guards sliced through the marketplace as they headed towards the eastern walls. Everyone ran in panic and went straight to their homes.
“All the able men are called upon to defend the city! Head towards the eastern walls to defend the city!” the head guard shouted as they marched towards the walls. The guard’s words echoed in the air but were drowned by the screaming and running. Mark didn’t know what to do. He quickly ran to his horse, only for it to be taken by one of the garrisoned soldiers. He was quickly grabbed by the arms and was dragged to the City Armory.
He had no choice. He went in and grabbed the things he needed – armor, helmet, greaves, a short sword and a spear.
Mark, along with the others, started to march towards the eastern walls when a fireball lit up the sky, startling everyone. They heard a loud boom from the other side of the city.
Mark was breathing fast now. He could see the terror on the other’s faces. They were commanded to proceed to the eastern walls and all went in a standard formation. Mark looked around and was curious as to why they weren’t heading out. They were still far from the gate. He noticed as well that the garrison forces were fewer than he originally thought.
“Where is the rest of garrison?” someone asked.
“Didn’t you hear? They were called back to Barceneim, to Tamara to secure it,” another one answered. Mark swallowed upon hearing it.
“Are they mad? We won’t stand a chance against the Xerxecian army without them!” someone shouted.
The militias were starting to murmur loudly when the head guard silenced them.
“All of you, quiet! We are here to make sure the women and children get out of the city alive!” The head guard said as he drew his sword while the city was being bombarded smaller fireballs. “Now prepare to hold them off as long as we can!” he added. Mark could see the Head Guards face. He saw the hope gone from this man.
He saw the remainder of the garrison forces slowly marched forward when the enormous gates suddenly blew into a thousand pieces. Several parts of the wall began to fall down completely. He could already see the Xerxecians flooding the city quickly as the other militias tried to fight them off. Mark was prepared to defend when some of his fellowmen dropped their shields and swords and ran for their lives.
He looked at the gate as the dust cleared and there, he had finally lost all hope.
It was the Red Prince.
Prince Tamiron walked casually with his glowing red eyes. The garrison forces converged to him and only heard pain and breaking bones dominated by the deathly cries of his fellow militias.
Mark saw Tamiron turn the remainder of the forces into lifeless bodies. He held his shield up and pointed his spear towards Tamiron. Their eyes met and Tamiron continued walking towards Mark. His spear pointed at him as his shield shook in fear. Inches from him Tamiron halted and looked down upon him.
Tamiron gently pulled Mark’s spear and pushed away his shield. Mark was completely trembling.
“Tell me,” Tamiron said in a haunting voice, “why do you stand before me?”
“To protect my family. To let them leave the city unharmed,” Mark answered as he stuttered.
“You are brave,” Tamiron said as his iron fist returned to normal size and grabbed Mark by the shoulder.
“Please have mercy, my Prince. My family. Please, Prince Tamiron. Spare their lives,” Mark begged.
Tamiron ignored this and said, “You will see your family soon. I assure you, you will be together, forever.”
Mark broke down to his knees and cried as his prince stood before him.
“A quick and painless death is the most generous gift one could receive,” Tamiron said.
Mark was helpless. He slowly raised a folded paper to Tamiron to which he was, surprised. Tamiron grabbed the paper and looked into it. He felt the Prince look at him and to the portrait, before folding it neatly and hiding it in his gauntlets.
With the Xerxecians rapidly flooding through the destroyed wall, Tamiron held slowly Mark’s head.
Mark closed his eyes for the inevitable.
And without even a blink, Tamiron, snapped Mark’s neck and gently laid his body on the ground.
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Maria was certain that Mark was clearly not coming back. She quickly got her son from his bed and carried him out of the house. She ran and she saw the burning houses that surrounded them. Matty woke up to a sky filled with smoke and to the sounds of pain, agony and fear. Matty was horrified to see the houses burned to ashes.
The Xerxecian soldiers reached them and blocked Maria’s way. She tried to go back but she only came to face another one behind her and they both approached her quickly. Matty was covered in cloth when Maria threw him as far away from her as possible. She looked back and forth on the soldiers when one of the soldiers tried to approach the cloth.
Maria realized that her son’s life was in danger and jumped on one of the soldier’s back and hit his head with a stone several times. One of the soldiers pulled her and threw her on the road. She crawled away from them when she saw her son, slowly crawling for safety under the enormous pile of debris.
“Feisty one we have here!” a Xerxecian uttered as they walked towards Maria slowly.
“The Prince will like this one. We should present her to him!” said another.
“Yes, yes! Present her to the Red One! He’ll let us do whatever to her!” the third one said.
Maria saw her son peeping from behind a door, crying and looking at her. Maria then smiled, threw a rock and hit one of the Xerxecians. The Xerxecian got mad but was immediately held back by the others.
“Grab her legs! Drag her towards the Red One!” commanded another in a heavier looking armor.
Maria was grabbed by the legs and she screamed as she was being dragged away towards the Governor’s Palace. She took a glance of where her son was before only to see that he was gone. She felt relieved and calmed down and thought to herself she was successful in protecting her only child.
End of chapter IX
X: HEAVEN’S RUINS
THE HEAVENS WEPT AT THE destruction of Melgrace. The Red Prince reduced it to ashes. Black clouds overshadowed the city as it blanketed it in pitch darkness. Ruins of the buildings, houses, towers, and the guard headquarters, were all that was left standing. Xerxecian soldiers roamed the city streets, looting and scavenging for any valuables that were still in the wreckages that they could use and things that they could salvage, while the other soldiers wandered the city looking for possible survivors of the siege. A few people were found alive and were brought to the center of the city where Prince Tamiron settled. He was in the main office of the Governor’s palace.
“Enough!” Tamiron shouted as he seemingly fought something off. He kept on banging the floor, before being thrown towards the bookshelves.
He growled in an unspeakable tone as he opened his eyes, showing his fiery colored irises.
He was thrown back again towards the floor, motionless. A couple of minutes later one of his soldiers came in the room.
“General, we have rounded up the remaining survivors outside the palace,” the soldier told the Prince in a husky voice. The Prince slowly stood up and took a deep breath. His eyes slowly glowed back to its burning state. “What does the general wish to do with the spoiled ones?” he again asked eagerly.
The prince closed his eyes and slowly opened it once more. The red glow only intensified and was replaced by bright, blood colored eyes as he stared fiercely on the city outside. He took a deep breath and then went out of the room and the soldier quickly followed.
They walked through the corridor of the palace. The walls were destroyed, some paintings were on the floor, some were tilted and some were untouched. They continued walking as Tamiron saw a fallen banner of the Trasidar Empire. He stopped briefly as he looked into it, tattered and ruined. He looked outside and saw the frightened prisoners as they were surrounded by the
blood thirsty soldiers. He proceeded to walk towards them, as he stepped all over the Trasidar banner.
The captured prisoners were all crying and begging for their lives, for the lives of the children that were left behind. The prince only gazed at them, looking at their faces that showed mixed fear and anger. The prince tried to memorize and remember the faces in front of him, but his face too, showed uncertainty. He didn’t have a clue with what to do with them. Then a woman caught Tamiron’s attention. She was dressed in tattered clothes smeared with dirt and her hands were tied behind her back. Her hair was all messed up and her face full of filth. Tears fell from her eyes but she made no sound, no screaming, not even begging for her life. Tamiron squatted in front of her and looked her in the face.
He held her hair, caressed it. He let go of it then held her jaw and turned her head towards him. He checked her thoroughly then stood up. He looked behind the girl and saw her tied up wrist.
“Give me a knife,” he asked as he held up his left hand. A soldier obligingly handed him a blade. He turned the woman around and grabbed her arms. He pulled it a little to expose the rope and Tamiron cut it loose. He handed the knife back to the soldier as he kept looking at the woman. She held her right wrist, rubbing at the rope marks.
Tamiron waited for some sort of reaction. He could see that she was clearly avoiding his eyes. She looked him straight in the face and she started to breathe fast. She slapped him right across the face in a blow of thunder. The room froze and all eyes landed on the woman. The soldiers looked at each other and everyone was silent. Tamiron turned his head towards the woman. Anger raged on her face, the hate she had for him while tears ran down her filthy face.
“Such bravery. Only one person showed such bravery in front of me today. He gave me this,” he said as he pulled out something from his gauntlet, a folded piece of paper. Tamiron took his time unfolding it in front of her.
“That brave man gave it to me. I believe, this is you,” he said as Tamiron handed over the paper to the woman.
The woman slowly cried and broke down, but no voice came out.
“Ah, yes. Maria,” he uttered as Maria looked at him for a moment before looking back at the picture.
“Your husband, was a brave man. I will give you, what I gave him,” Tamiron said slowly. Maria only looked at their portrait with a hand written phrase by her husband, I love you and Matty, my sweet love, Maria.
She read and looked at their portrait as she broke down to her knees.
Tamiron slowly held her head with his hands and said, “Again, your husband was a brave man. Deserving of such a quick and painless death. I shall bestow upon you the same fate. And as a promise that I gave to your husband, you two will be together. Forever.”
And then, without wasting a second, Tamiron swiftly snapped Maria’s neck in the same manner that he did with Mark.
He did not lay her on the ground. He looked up in the angry clouds and stared at it blankly. A raindrop fell down the Prince’s forehead and the sky began to shed its tears. Tamiron carried Maria’s lifeless body in his arms, the piece of paper still in her hands. The Prince closed his eyes for a moment as he walked towards the two soldiers waiting beside a dug up hole not far from the palace.
“You know what to do,” he said as he walked away, the soldier grinned sadistically. The others quickly got the idea and all of them silently growled.
“Finish them!” shouted one of the soldiers and they all jump on the prisoners. They began their awful feast and the prisoners screamed out of fear and agony.
The rain started to fall as he could hear the cries of the other prisoners. But Tamiron paid no attention to it. He just looked at Maria and slowly laid her in the hole, and beside her was Mark’s body. He fixed up their heads to make them face each other. He looked at the portrait one more time – a portrait of a father, a mother, and a son. He stared at the sketch of a smiling child. Tamiron took a deep breath and laid it in the middle of the two lifeless bodies.
“Bury them and be sure to make a marker as I instructed,” Tamiron commanded his soldiers, as he walked away towards the palace.
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Not far from the ruins of Melgrace, a young boy was walking in the rain, heading towards the capital. The look on his face was devastating – hopeless, grief and utter loneliness. It was Matty, wrapped in the cloth that his mother gave him. He walked slowly and stared blankly in space as he pushed every step. He could clearly remember the very haunting image, as they took his mother and saw her eyes for the last time, his mother’s last smile to him. He recalled his father who left for work, then never saw him again. That day that will forever be engraved in his mind, his memory, his very soul. This day that destroyed his life, his dreams of a big happy family, destroyed and ruined. That day that destroyed his short lived, childhood.
From afar, he heard a galloping horse from a distance behind him. He ignored it and continued. The horse galloped and the puddles splashed on its way as it got closer and closer. The galloping stopped and voice came from the man riding the horse.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” he asked Matty.
Matty stared at him blankly with no answer at all. The man was wondering and asked again.
“Are you from Melgrace, boy? Where are your parents?”
Matty looked at the man and saw the scout emblem and the city’s emblem. He started to cry and suddenly ran towards the man and hugged him. Until Matty collapsed and the scout held him in his arms.
“Don’t worry now. I’m here,” the man said
The man lifted the boy and put him on the horse.
He saddled himself up too as the boy held tight on his back. The scout took a glimpse of the boy before he continued and dashed his journey back to Tamara.
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In Eldemensters Temple, Sevidon and Glaivel had just arrived.
They strapped their horses to a nearby tree. It was early dusk that day. They slowly walked towards the temple. As they looked around, they suddenly heard a rock falling. Sevidon pulled his shield and sword from his back while Glaivel deployed his bow and readied an arrow, ready to release it anytime he saw danger. They constantly watched each other’s back as they entered the temple.
Only shadows of the pillars were inside, but still they felt cautious. Glaivel retracted his bow and arrow and set it back behind his cape, but Sevidon was still on high alert. He constantly looked up and down, left and right, to watch every point of direction. Glaivel looked at the pillars then arrogantly enough, he suddenly approached them. Sevidon looked at where Glaivel was going.
“Magnum Oricais!” Sevidon and Glaivel suddenly heard from the inside.
“Glaivel watch out!” he shouted. Glaivel swiftly looked at Sevidon when they heard the shouting voice. He back flipped out of danger but was too late as the hurling maroon colored bubble hit him hard.
Dropping dead, he was knocked out in a single hit. Sevidon checked from where it came from then stood up. He heard again a different sound. He heard a constant flapping of wings and when he looked in front of him, he saw a man with wings was about to stab him. He pulled his shield and quickly deflected the attack but it pushed against him, buckling him to the floor. The man got on top of him with his sword pointing at Sevidon’s face.
They were both panting as Sevidon stared at his enemy, then the light shone on Sevidon’s face and the winged man stopped his assault.
“Uhm, Evangeline!” the man shouted, and then out from the shadows, a girl emerged and ran towards the winged man. She looked at Sevidon and was completely surprised. Still panting, Sevidon looked at both of them.
He could see the girl realizing her own mistake. She ran towards Glaivel and came to his aid. The man spun his sword a couple of times before putting it back in his scabbard. He stood up and the wings disappeared into his back and offered Sevidon his hand.
Getting up slowly, hesitantly accepted the winged man’s hand. The girl picked up Glaivel and rested his head o
n her lap. Sevidon grabbed his sword and shield and put it aside. The man whistled while he approached the girl. Sevidon only watched the two as he walked towards them.
The girl looked at the man with watery eyes, “I knocked him out,” she wept. He just checked on Glaivel, constantly slapping his face softly, checking if he’s conscious. Glaivel moved his head, still in woe. The girl then held his right hand and it suddenly glowed into a teal colored orb, with her hands inside. She repeatedly moved her hands slowly across from his stomach to head, while his face continuously twitched. The man turned his attention to their other friend in the red armor. He found him looking at another pillar.
Sevidon stared at an image of a red colored bird, holding a shield and sword on its feet while a symbol resembling blood was above its head. He continued to look down on the pillar only to find strange writings that he could not understand.
Ravaen on the other hand, not far from Sevidon, kept watch. He too looked at another pillar and saw a blue colored falcon. Different from the blue eagle, he examined it and saw an image of a falcon’s eye with five streaks of light emitting from it.
“So, you are?” the man asked while looking at the pillar. Sevidon just looked at the other pillar next to the other one he just saw. In this pillar was a bird just like the red bird, dark green but looking the other way than the previous, holding a bow and arrow and above it was an image of the air also with five streaks of light. Then he looked at the man.
“I am Sevidon.”
The man felt the chilly stare of Sevidon saying, “So you’re General Sevidon Borinvegeard of the Venis Elves. Correct?”
Sevidon smiled and closed his eyes before he answered back. “My reputation exceeds me,” he said then opened his eyes. The man looked back at the General and they approached each other until they reached the center.
“Well, we know that because you are the head of the Venis Templars and most importantly, you trained Prince Tamiron yourself,” he said while they both grinned at each other then he added, “and because of that, you were sent by them rather than your prince.” He only smirked about it.
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